Improvement in reefing and furling sails



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE H. FELT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN REEFING AND FURLING SAILS.

Specification forming part ofLetters Patent No 44:620: dated October 1l, 1564; ante-dated September 25, 1864.

To all whom t may concern: and thence through the blocks in the center Be it known that I, GEORGE H. FELT, of of the yard m, and'at the same time gather up the city, county, and State et' New York, have the sail as the yard falls. invented a new and improved method ot' reei'- The reeiing-ropes are not loosed from the ing sails by means of ropes arranged in the cleats o during the operation of reeng, but form and manner of lacings; and I hereby dehere taut before the reef is made. clare that the following is a full and exact Thehalyard It' can be eased o until the yard description thereof', reference being had to the has fallen to the first, second, or third reef', or accompanying drawings, and to the letters of the reeng-rope can be arranged as at p, so as reference marked thereon, forming part of this to support the sail at the first reef, and in that specification. case that rope will have to be eased oft`,vto The drawing represents a view of the mast, gether With the halyard, when the yard is yards, &c., and back of the sail, with the arwanted to fall to the second or third reef. rangement ot' ropes for reeng. Inpraetiee it Willbe necessary to havealong a represents the mainmast, and b the maiusheaveblock attached to the yard containing top mast; c, the main yard, and d the main.- a sheave for every pair otf reefngropes intopsail yard;- 6, the maintop resting on the stead of the eyes Z, and a large block with an bibbs f. equal number of sheave-holes at m instead oi` The sail g is made and lent to the yard in the double block. rThe ropes can unite in one the usual manner, but, instead of reef-points, or two ropes above this block and pass in a has ridge-ropes h, to which grommets i are single rope to the cleat. Y fastened, in which dead eyes are placed, l/Vhen arranged, as at 3,1he yard can fall and through which the ropes reeve for reeting the the slack oi'therope can then behauledin,or the sail. These deadeyes are represented by eyewhole sail can be raised to the yard; or,in the lets. The reetng ropes arelaced up and down ease of fore and-aft sails, the sail can be 10W- the sail as l and 2, or across the sail as 3, or ered and theslack ot'thereefing-ropehauledin. arranged as 4, and either single as 1,0rdoub`e Vha-t I claim as my invention, and desire as 2. The reefingropes pass through sheaveto secure by Letters Patent, isholes l, placed on top of the t0p-sail yard, and i The combination of ropes in form and manare carried to a block, on., in the center of the l ner of lacings for the purpose of reeng and yard, and thence to a block, n, attached. to furling sails, the said lacings remaining stathe cross-trees, and thence fastened to cleats tionary and the sail being reefed by the yard o on t-he mast or on deck. being lowered, all arranged and combined as To reef the sail the halyards k are loosed, specified. which allows the top sail yard to fall, and the i reeng-ropes, being arranged as laeings and Witnesses: remaining stationary, as before described, FEEDK. B. SWTFT, reeve through the sheave-lloles on the yards, WV. E. SLOGUM.

GEO. H. FELT. 

